Dundee United 0-2 Celtic: Jackie McNamara unhappy with decisions

Dundee United captain Sean Dillon was sent off in the second half

Jackie McNamara could not hide his frustration with referee Bobby Madden as Celtic beat his 10-man Dundee United 2-0 in the Scottish League Cup final.

Kris Commons and James Forrest scored either side of half-time, with captain Sean Dillon sent off for Dundee United.

They also had a penalty appeal turned down when Ryan Dow hit the deck under a challenge from Celtic's Scott Brown.

"A lot of the decisions I wasn't happy with today, as you can imagine," manager McNamara told BBC Scotland.

"A lot of things went against us today, a lot of inconsistencies, shall we say."

Sean Dillon receives treatment after a challenge by Virgil van Dijk

McNamara was unhappy Dillon was sent off for a foul on Emilio Izaguirre, yet had to leave the field in the first half to get stitches in a wound, with no action taken against Virgil van Dijk for his challenge.

To add insult to injury, Celtic scored while he was receiving treatment.

Celtic were also awarded a penalty later in the game, with Radoslaw Cierzniak saving Forrest's effort.

"The ordering-off and them scoring when we went down to 10 men [were turning points]," the United manager said.

"A nasty cut on Sean Dillon's leg, he had to go off, it took a bit of time.

"We were possibly going to make the change but they told us it wasn't going to be long, but he had a lot of stitches in his leg which went unnoticed - the challenge as well.

"Ryan [Dow] thought it was [a penalty], I'd need to see it again. If you compare the two penalties, I don't think there's much difference.

Celtic's Stefan Johansen squares up to Ryan Dow (right) after feeling the United man went down easily in the box

"But, you need those little breaks, you need the referees to be consistent with certain things, but it's very hard when you're playing with 10 men. Last week (also against Celtic) we played with nine men.

"We lost two goals today, we rode our luck at times, but going forward the last pass, the last bit of decision-making let us down a little bit. We had opportunities to carve them open and we didn't take advantage of that.

"I'd like to see Sean's challenge again and compare it with the one he got from [Virgil] Van Dijk. He's got a lot of stitches in his leg, shall we say."

United travel to Celtic Park twice in the next seven days, with the Scottish Cup replay on Wednesday evening before they complete a quadruple of games against the Scottish Premiership leaders on Saturday.

"The boys will be hurting and down but I can't fault them for effort, I'm proud of how they kept going together," McNamara said.

"And the fans too, they stuck with us. It's not easy to watch when everything is going against you."